Silent Circle, a telephone service provider focused on privacy and encrypted communications, announced Thursday that it would begin offering international calling plans without global roaming charges. The new service will allow employees traveling overseas to use their iOS or Android mobile phones without incurring exorbitant roaming fees.

The company has been providing smartphone apps that allow customers to make encrypted calls and text. Until now, however, the service required that both parties have the app installed on their phone.

Muscling in on the Competition

The move puts Silent Circle in direct competition with Skype and Google Voice, both of which also allow customers to use their phone while traveling abroad. It also represents an attack on traditional carriers that can charge sky-high rates to clients who use their phones while traveling abroad.

"Silent Circle is directly challenging the legacy model of mobile carriers by offering an alternative to costly mobile roaming fees. This is an especially important issue for our enterprise and government customers around the world," said Vic Hyder, Silent Circle's chief of revenue. "International fees and roaming charges account for a significant portion of European and Latin American business overhead. Our encrypted international calling service completely eliminates roaming charges while protecting members' privacy."

The Switzerland-based company said in a statement Thursday that the expansion of its encrypted VoIP service represents "a major disruption to wireless carriers' traditional mobile calling models." Silent Circle claimed its geographic coverage area is now "four to five times more than its closest non-secure competitors like Skype and Viber."

According to Silent Circle's Web site, calling plans for individuals begin at $12.95 a month for 100 minutes of calls to landlines in 79 countries and cell phones in 41, including North America, most European countries, Russia and China. Plans go up to $39.95 a month for 1,000 minutes. The company does not list prices for its enterprise plans. Calls and texts to other Silent Circle members remain free of charge.

Security for Business Customers

The service may prove particularly appealing for corporate and enterprise clients who need to maintain privacy while discussing sensitive or confidential information. The technology is based on a secure voice-over-IP client, similar to services such as Microsoft's Skype. Unlike Skype, which reportedly has given the U.S. National Security Agency unfettered access to its data, Silent Circle explicitly markets itself as the most secure mobile communication possible, while also supporting encrypted file transfers, conferences calls and video chat.

But whether corporations adopt the platform will depend on how easy it is to manage, and how well it fits with their existing communications infrastructure, said Bill Menezes, principal research analyst at Gartner.

"Cell phone carriers haven't done a lot" to keep down international roaming rates, Menezes told us. "Increasingly, enterprises are looking for an over-the-top solution, whether that's a Skype or a Vibe or a Silent Circle." Companies may be reluctant to take on management of a new application, or, if they already have a unified communication deployment in place, they may choose something else that works with their existing technology, he said.

Silent Circle made news earlier this year when it announced it was developing a "Blackphone" in a joint venture with Geeksphone following revelations by former NSA contract employee Edward Snowden of a massive government surveillance program. The company claims the smartphone, which runs an Android-based operating system it calls PrivatOS, is protected against the type of surveillance tactics practiced by agencies such as the NSA.

However, the technology is unlikely to be foolproof against law enforcement or espionage agencies determined to surveil a target.

"Any drug dealer, terrorist or pimp who thinks this sort of service will insulate them would have to be naive," Ben Wood, a senior analyst with mobile research firm CCS Insight, told Reuters. "Nothing is bulletproof in that regard."

I think there is better technology out there. A company called Vir-Sec can transmit data bypassing the browser and hard drive.

Virginia Kluiters:

Posted: 2014-07-30 @ 1:14pm PT

What really gets me when I travel is the pricy cell phone bills, especially from roaming. For anyone who is interested in more affordable plans, I recommend G3 Wireless. G3 is a pay-as-you-go plan and offers services to U.S. and Canadian citizens traveling in Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico, etc.

Shankar Kumar:

Posted: 2014-07-29 @ 3:09am PT

This comes out as a good news for a lot of people, customers and businessmen alike. I can't stop to imagine the usefulness of this feature as privacy in communication still is a major problem. For better chat privacy Photo4tune stands out as an outstanding app in Android Markets.

Larry:

Posted: 2014-07-17 @ 10:32am PT

I imagine this will help lots of businesses across the globe, international has the mainstream for business now days.

Steve Delgado:

Posted: 2014-07-14 @ 10:21am PT

For our company, we have not had great experiences with wifi based tools or third party sim cards. We just use a service called "RoamSmart" to manage our company's roaming with AT&T.

davido:

Posted: 2014-07-14 @ 3:27am PT

This all seems very good but I sometimes have had problems with poor connections and the phone does not work when abroad. So what happens if the WiFi goes down. Does this stop the service. What security is on the product and services especially unsecured WiFi use. We tend to use people like Telestial or Go Sim International Sim and Data cards to keep the charges down as they have been around for years.

Ed.:

Posted: 2014-07-12 @ 11:39am PT

@Randy: You probably want to check with AT&T or if you're asking how Silent Circle can help you, here's a link to ask them directly:
https://silentcircle.com

randy:

Posted: 2014-07-12 @ 11:05am PT

I currently live in Mexico, moved here from the the US, I have a Iphone thru ATT, how can you help me?